The free tool -- an alternative to Microsoft's own command line interface called WMIC-- leverages WMI, a stack of Windows driver component interfaces supporting key standards including WBEM and CIM. WMI is built into all versions of Windows, allowing for deployed scripting to manage PCs and some servers remotely.

According to Goverlan, its WMIX tool includes a WMI Query Wizard, which will appeal to administrators with limited scripting or coding skills because it lets them create sophisticated standard WMI Query Language (WQL) queries with a filtering mechanism that generates results matching the needs of the specified remote systems. Goverlan's WMIX GUI lets administrators automatically generate Visual Basic scripts to define parameters to generate a script and report. It can also create WMI-based Group Policy Objects (GPO) and performs agentless system administration.

What's in it for the company to give away this free tool? Ezra Charm, Goverlan's vice president of marketing, noted that the company has never officially launched the tool nor has it significantly promoted it, yet it's popular among those who use it. "We are seeing a ton of interest," Charm said. Though many companies release free tools hoping to upsell customers to premium releases, Charm said the release of WMIX is primarily aimed at overall awareness for those who want to perform advanced WMI-based system administration functions and reports. Nevertheless, the effect would be the same.

WMIX is a component of the company's flagship systems administration tool, Goverlan Remote Administration Suite v8, which, depending on your environment, is an alternative or supplement to Microsoft's System Center Configuration Manager.

"At first, WMIX was implemented as an internal development tool to assist the integration of WMI Technology within the Goverlan Client Management Tool, but we quickly realized that this product would be of great services to all Windows System Administrators out there as it would allow anyone without advanced scripting knowledge to consume this powerful technology," said Goverlan CEO, Pascal Bergeot, in a statement announcing the release of the free tool